Nitesh Singh

Medicinal plants have served as the foundation of healthcare across cultures for centuries, yet their safety is increasingly undermined by heavy metal and pesticide contamination driven by industrial growth, agrochemical misuse and environmental degradation. Despite widespread concern, the field remains fragmented. Contamination data are scattered across taxa and regions. The link between pollutant bioaccumulation and loss of medicinal potency is rarely explored mechanistically. Moreover, human health risk assessments tailored to herbal consumers remain largely absent from regulatory conversations. This review brings these threads together. It traces how heavy metals including Pb, Cd, As, Hg, Cr and Ni along with pesticide residues enter medicinal plants, disrupt their physiology, impair secondary metabolite production and ultimately reach human consumers. “Five widely consumed medicinal genera Ocimum, Mentha, Glycyrrhiza, Catharanthus and Withania are examined as illustrative models”. Each offers a distinct perspective on species-specific bioaccumulation patterns, providing a comparative framework rarely found in existing literature. Crucially, this review connects plant level stress responses to real world health outcomes, critically evaluating risk assessment tools such as EDI, HQ, HI and Cancer Risk models within the underexplored context of habitual herbal product use. Detection technologies, regulatory standards and mitigation strategies are assessed with equal rigor. The need for this review is urgent. The absence of unified monitoring frameworks and taxon-specific safety thresholds leaves billions of herbal medicine users inadequately protected. This work provides a consolidated, actionable foundation for researchers, regulators and clinicians working toward safer, evidence-based herbal therapeutics. Graphical abstract

Parthenium hysterophorus L. is a noxious and highly invasive weed known for its adverse effects on livestock and human health. Despite its negative impact, the plant possesses notable therapeutic potential. This study investigated the phytochemical composition, conducted quantitative analyses and evaluated the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of various P. hysterophorus extracts. The crude extract of methanol and ethyl acetate of different plant parts was prepared using maceration techniques and antibacterial activity of its crude extract through the agar well diffusion method. The methanol leaves extract exhibited the highest phenolic content (20.38 ± 0.02 mg/g GAE [gallic acid equivalent]), followed by the methanol flower extract (18.99 ± 0.02 mg/g GAE). The ethyl acetate flower extract showed the highest flavonoid content (123.98 ± 5.7 mg/g QE [quercetin equivalent]), while the methanol stems extract contained the most alkaloids (566 ± 6.14 mg/g AAE [ascorbic acid equivalent]). In terms of antioxidant activity, the methanol flower extract demonstrated greater DPPH radical scavenging capacity (IC₅₀ = 482.99 µg/mL) compared to the ethyl acetate leaves extract (IC₅₀ = 637.63 µg/mL). The strongest ABTS scavenging activity was observed in the ethyl acetate leaf extract (IC₅₀ = 79.04 µg/mL) and the methanol flower extract exhibited superior ferric reducing antioxidant power. Antibacterial testing revealed the highest activity against Microbacterium sp. (26.33 ± 0.57 mm at 60 mg/mL) in the ethyl acetate leaf extract. The extract effectiveness against all tested bacterial strains ranked as follows: methanol flower > ethyl acetate leaf > methanol leaf > methanol root > ethyl acetate root > methanol stem. The Ultraviolet–Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analyses further confirmed the presence of key bioactive compounds. These findings highlight the potential of P. hysterophorus as a source of natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents, which may serve as alternatives to synthetic compounds.

Sarcococca saligna (S. saligna), a medicinal shrub rich in therapeutic steroidal alkaloids (SAs), is ethnomedicinally used to treat ulcers, tumors, and wounds. In this study, to explore the anticancer potential of S. saligna, a combination of bioactivity-guided fractionation and isolation, an in vitro cytotoxic assay, and in silico analysis was used. The ethanolic extract of S. saligna (SL-01) was fractionated into butanol (SL-02), ethyl acetate (SL-03), hexane (SL-04), and water (SL-05) fractions. The extract and fractions, along with isolated compounds, were tested for anticancer activity against human cancer cell lines (colon, lung, and breast) using the sulforhodamine assay, with SL-03 displaying the strongest cytotoxicity in HT-29 colon cancer cells (IC₅₀ = 18.6 μM). The most active fraction SL-03 confirmed the presence of eight bioactive steroidal alkaloids via LC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS analysis. Two SAs sarcorine C and salonine C isolated from SL-03 were structurally confirmed through NMR spectroscopy and exhibited selective cytotoxicity against HT-29 cells with minimal activity in noncancerous cell lines. The markedly lower IC₅₀ values of salonine C (5.21 μM) and sarcorine C (3.25 μM) highlight their potential as safer, more effective lead candidates for colon cancer therapy. Computational pharmacokinetics (SwissADME, ADMET analysis) predicted favorable drug-likeness, and DFT calculations provided electronic characteristics for both compounds. Moreover, molecular docking of both compounds with key cancer-associated targets CDK2, CYP17A1, Bcl-2, and MMP-2 showed stable binding. Additionally, extended 200 ns molecular dynamics simulations further validated the complexes, revealing stable RMSD, reduced SASA, favorable hydrogen bonding, and strong MM-GBSA binding free energies (△G_bind = -42.6 kcal·mol^-1 for sarcorine C vs -40.8 kcal·mol^-1 for roscovitine). These findings establish S. saligna as a promising source of anticancer steroidal alkaloids and report, for the first time, the selective cytotoxic activity of sarcorine C and salonine C against colon cancer cells, supported by integrated experimental and computational evidence.

Background: Influenza is a contagious viral respiratory infection that could cause huge morbidity and mortality, especially in high-hazard populations along with the elderly, young children, and people with underlying fitness situations. The worldwide burden of influenza is sizeable, with millions of instances and hundreds of deaths every year. Preventive measures like vaccines and antiviral medicinal drugs are available, but their effectiveness can be hindered by factors such as limited vaccine efficacy, the emergence of antiviral resistance, and public reluctance toward vaccination. Analyzing influenza can be challenging due to its symptom overlapping with other respiratory diseases and the limitations of current diagnostic tools. The frequent antigenic drift and high mutation rates, which contribute to reduced vaccine efficacy and complicate seasonal vaccine formulation. This study aims to understand the epidemiological and evolutionary patterns of Influenza H3N2, enhancing our knowledge of influenza. Our review highlights the dynamic interplay between viral evolution and host immunity and emphasizes adaptive strategies in vaccine formulation and public health responses to mitigate H3N2-associated morbidity and mortality.

Impact of the green revolution genes on rice and wheat productivity under rainfed environments has been debated since past few decades. Here we made an attempt to assess the impact of two major green revolution genes Rht B1 and Rht D1 on grain yield under drought stress. A total of four recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations were analyzed for this objective including PBW343 × Muu, PBW343 × Kingbird, PBW343 × Kenyaswara and Jal 95.4.3 × Kachu/Kiritati/Kachu. These populations segregated for either or both the Rht gene alleles. Our results revealed an invariable non-association of tall/ dwarf alleles of Rht B1 and Rht D1 genes with grain yield under drought stress. Tightly linked sequence tags with Rht and Vrn genes were identified for future application in wheat breeding. A genetic linkage map of 1170 DArt-seq markers covering 2870 cM was constructed in Jal 95.4.3 × Ka-chu/Kiritati/Kachu RIL population and QTLs for yield related traits were identified. Study provides an insight for researchers involved in developing the next generation climate resilient wheat varieties that can cope well with rainfed/ drought prone en-vironments.